Jobless Youth Face Crime, Drugs, Depression: ILO

The youth unemployment rate is expected to show a "minimal decrease" in 2011 since its peak last year but the young, particularly in areas most hit by the crisis, are struggling to find jobs, the International Labor Organization said in a report released Wednesday.

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Young people still face hardship in finding jobs and this may have long-term effects, the ILO warned.

"Increased crime rates in the some countries, increased drug use, moving back home with the parents, depression – all of these are common consequences for a generation of youth that, at best, has become disheartened about the future, and, at worst, has become angry and violent," the organization wrote in the report.

Youth unemployment is likely to slide to 12.6 percent from 12.7 percent this year and the absolute number of young jobseekers fell since its peak in 2009 but only marginally by around 600,000, the report showed.

"In the current context of economic instability, young men and women face increasing uncertainty in their hopes of finding a decent job," according to the ILO report.

"The specter of youth unemployment has continued to worsen in the Developed Economies & European Union, where young people paid the highest price over the course of the crisis," the report said.

In 2010, youth unemployment numbers and rates in this area were higher last year than at any time since measurement began in 1991.

In most developed countries, long-term unemployment rates for young people by far exceeded those of adults, with youth in Italy, for example, being three times more likely to be jobless for at least a year than adults, the report showed.

For a lot of young people who did find work, the job is "less than ideal," with part-time employment rising for youth in all developed economies except for Germany and Poland between 2007 and 2010, the ILO wrote.

Between 2007 and 2010, the part-time employment rate for young people increased by 9.2 points in Iceland, 17.0 points in Ireland, 10.5 points in Luxembourg, 10.1 points in Slovenia, 8.8 points in Spain and 5.2 points in the United Kingdom.

"By the end of 2010, as much as half of working youth were in part-time employment in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, while in Australia, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the share was one in three," the report added.